Superintendent's Memo #120-11

COMMONWEALTH of VIRGINIA
Department of Education

April 22, 2011

TO: Division Superintendents

FROM: Patricia I. Wright, Superintendent of Public Instruction

SUBJECT: Early College Scholars Certificates

Beginning in 2007-2008, the process for Early College Scholars certificates was automated enabling school divisions to print these certificates on-site through the Single Sign-on for Web Systems (SSWS). School divisions must designate students who have signed Early College Scholars agreements in the Student Record Collection (SRC) during the fall and spring of the school year in order for a certificate to be created and available to be printed in SSWS.

The data entered during the spring SRC will be used to prepare the certificates and must be accurate. The certificate generator will be populated with names that have been flagged in the Early College Scholars’ field number two, which designates the student has earned the Governor’s Early College Scholars certificate. Students not identified in the spring SRC will not be included in the data file for printing certificates.

Beginning in early May, school divisions will be able to print a certificate for each student reported in the spring SRC. School divisions must print the certificates within the division using SSWS. The certificate generator provides for the creation, storage, and printing of Early College Scholars certificates.

To print the certificates, log in to SSWS, and click on Certificate Generator. Click on “Generate Certificates,” on the gray menu to the right, which presents the option for printing Early College Scholars certificates. Click on “Early College Scholars” and a drop down menu will appear with the specific division and school name(s).

All certificates will be generated as an Adobe PDF file that can be saved and printed on any local printer. There will be one certificate per page in the PDF file. The PDF page count can be used to determine the number of sheets of paper required for the certificates.

Certificates may be printed one at a time or batched all together by school or division. School divisions will also have the capability of printing blank certificates.

For more information, please contact Tracy Fair Robertson, English coordinator, Office of Standards, Curriculum, and Instruction, by e-mail at Tracy.Robertson@doe.virginia.gov or by telephone at (804) 371-7585; or Joseph A. Wharff, school counseling connections specialist, Office of Career and Technical Education, by e-mail at Joseph.Wharff@doe.virginia.gov or by telephone at (804) 225-3370.